Lessons From Life
No subject is too controversial for Carole Shakely-Parkman’s 12th-grade English class at North High School in Torrance.
Students discuss immigrant-bashing, homophobia, the Rampart scandal, the Napster controversy, physical abuse and the death sentence of journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is accused of killing a police officer in Philadelphia.
In fact, these topics are part of Shakely-Parkman’s lesson plans--borrowed from LA Youth magazine.
LA Youth, an independent magazine written by teenagers for a teenage readership, distributes bimonthly lesson plans to Los Angeles-area teachers based on youngsters’ essays and stories.
“We write about sex, abortions, all kind of things,” said LA Youth’s 38-year-old Managing Editor Elizabeth Hartigan, a former newspaper reporter and one of four paid staff members.
“We wanted to give these teachers methods so they can really hit home with these topics.”
LA Youth, a free magazine published five times a year, was created in 1988. It has a circulation of 300,000 and nearly 75 unpaid staff writers between 13 and 19 years old.
LA Youth is published by Youth News Service of Los Angeles, a nonprofit corporation. The 28-page newsprint publication is delivered, along with lessons plans, to more than 800 teachers and librarians in county high schools and libraries.
Any teenager can contribute. Those who want to can get information by attending the magazine’s orientation--held every two months--or at a summer writing workshop.
In Shakely-Parkman’s class, 25 diverse students--a girl wearing a black and white bandanna, a boy with bleach-blond streaks in his spiky hair, a cheerleader, the president of the campus gay/straight alliance--lounge on five secondhand couches.
It’s a slumber-party atmosphere. They eat Cheetos, glazed pastries and candy bars, and flip through LA Youth’s January-February issue, which features a photo of a homeless teenager on the cover.
Shakely-Parkman, who wears dangly, plastic red hot-pepper earrings and a heart-shaped button that reads “Love Carefully,” directs students to read the article on Page 6 titled “Fighting for Respect,” by Richard Kwon, 16, a Loyola High School student. He describes racism he encountered as an immigrant from South Korea.
“My first month in an American classroom, I was so lost. I tried to understand what the teachers were saying, but I could make out only a few words,” he wrote. “One day after class, some of the other sixth-graders approached me. . . . They smirked, ‘Hey stupid! Do you speak English?’ ”
Following LA Youth’s lesson plan, which was based on Kwon’s article, Shakely-Parkman asks students to list examples of prejudice. The kids blurt out words: Hate, discrimination, segregation, ignorance, stereotypes, racism, sexism, ageism, gay bashing, “religionism.”
Then they list stereotypes: Asians don’t know how to drive. All Spanish-speaking people are Mexicans. All white people are racist.
The exercise sparks a debate over racism and immigration.
“[Immigrants] take our money and our jobs,” says one 17-year-old.
“Free clinics are for American homeless people, not for immigrants who come here to freeload,” another says.
Monica Anguiano, 17, who comes from an immigrant family, counters: “If my parents didn’t get a chance, I wouldn’t be here. They worked their way up. When they first came here they didn’t pay taxes, but now they do.”
Despite strong opinions and disagreements, students agree on one thing: They enjoy debating and discussing LA Youth topics.
“It’s not like a regular English class,” says April Misloski, 18.
“We have debates and conversations and that’s the best part of this class,” says Melanie Mahkorn, 17. “We get to voice our opinion about everything.”
That is the reaction Jason Sperber hoped for when he designed the first lessons plans last summer.
“Schools are populated by . . . students of color, English language learners, working-class family kids,” said the 26-year-old UCLA graduate student and former LA Youth writer. “Building lessons around LA Youth stories is a way to tap into their interests and give students something to read and talk about.”
Sperber, who wants to be a teacher, has designed lessons about the Napster controversy over music downloads off the Internet, teenage anorexia and other issues.
The lesson on the Rampart scandal lists discussion questions such as: How does this scandal and other instances of alleged police brutality make you feel about police and the justice system? What are your experiences with the police and justice system?
It also lists possible activities: Assign research papers on the history of police misconduct in Los Angeles. Assign research projects to document police misconduct in communities.
In the Napster lesson, students are assigned to represent various groups: Napster users, industry representatives, music stars, unsigned musicians and software developers. The groups debate in a mock town hall meeting.
Lessons are available to teachers for free by mail or on the LA Youth Internet site at https://www.layouth.com.
Sperber said he knows parents and teachers may consider some of these lessons too controversial. But that doesn’t mean they should not be taught, he said.
“Education does not occur in a vacuum,” he said. “Students bring everything that’s going on in their lives and everything that’s happening in their communities with them to school everyday.”
LA Youth lesson plans may be nontraditional but they still serve an educational purpose, he said.
Parent Lory Allison of Torrance said she browsed through LA Youth recently when her daughter, Rachel, 18, brought a copy home.
“I think they’re old enough to have opinions and get involved,” Allison said of the young writers and readers. “I really don’t think there’s too much that is inappropriate for their age. High school kids are pretty intelligent and they’re getting exposed to all of this on TV anyway.”